Immersive Modeling of Water Banking Elicits Local Knowledge to Get More Water to Great Salt Lake

The purpose of this immersive online collaborative model is to give collaborators the opportunity to explore, pick at, and possibly improve water banking strategies to get more water to the declining Great Salt Lake (GSL). There are five roles in this immersive model: three agricultural users, one urban user, and the bank. During a model session, collaborators immerse in and personify water user roles for a water bank in Cache Valley, UT (collaborators often play roles different than themselves). Each collaborator articulates a strategy for their user to consume and bank water. Over the course of a model session, collaborators can adapt their strategies in response to their available water, others’ choices, and the real-time discussion of choices. Through the model sessions and discussions, we want to learn:

i. Why do people decide to consume, conserve, bank, and deliver water within the immersive modeling environments?
ii. Which new insights do participants take away from a model session?
iii. Which improvements do they suggest in modeling and in implementation?
iv. How can an immersive online collaborative modeling approach support the adoption of water banking including delivering water to GSL?

Till May 2025, 29 farmers, ranchers, practitioners, and experts participated in 9 sessions. Each collaborator participated in only one session.
This resource shares the final version of the immersive model, collaborators entries into the model in each session, and notes from the discussion.
Contents of this resource:
1) CacheValleyWaterBank.xlsx – Final version of the model file in Excel. Download, move into Google Drive, invite people to join, and follow the remaining instructions on the first worksheet named “Directions.”
2) ImmersiveModelingWaterBankingGSL.pdf – A 2 page summary of study containing background, key results, and new strategies to get more water to Great Salt Lake.
3) Radme.md- A markdown document which contains background on the model, and instructions on how to guide an immersive modeling activity.
4) Masuscript.pdf – A preprint of the corresponding paper that is presently under peer review in the journal Water Resources Research.

Folders
5) ModelFilesandNotes – Folder containing the completed Excel model file and notes taken for each modeling session. The file Result.xlsx organizes and summarizes into themes notes taken during model session.
6) FiguresCode – Folder containing the subfolders to replicate the figures and results in the study. The file Instructions_to_replicate_results.docx provides instructions to replicate the figures in the study.
7) IRB - documents required to share with potential collaborators that were required by Utah State University's Institutional Review Board (IRB).